Mobile OS Market
For December, the iPhone recorded the single largest monthly gain in market share since the device was introduced, jumping 20 percent from last month to 0.43 percent of the total OS market. While that may seem insignificant in terms of share, that spike fits in nicely with estimates of record-breaking iPhone sales for the holiday quarter. Those estimates range from 8.8 million to 11 million iPhones, and would smash last quarter’s record of 7.4 million iPhones sold.
In terms of where iPhone OS stands against competitors, it is now tied with ubiquitous Java ME devices, both at around 37 percent. However, it should be noted that Net Applications measures market share based on web browsing, so the value of an excellent browsing experience can outweigh actual sales.
Case in point, Android, which until the Droid has seen relatively poor sales, has nonetheless quintupled market share this year according to Net Applications, and now represents .05 percent of total OS share. That would be about half the share of the iPod touch. Looking at the iPhone OS overall, it now represents one half of one percent of OS market, about half the share of Linux and a tenth of what OS X has.
